Bulgari has grabbed the headlines once again, its newest ultra-thin watch, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatique. With the introduction of its newest offering, the watchmaker has bagged the third world record for ultra-thin watchmaking, following on the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon from 2014 and the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater from last year. The Octo Finissimo Automatique’s caliber BVL 138 Finissimo is a micro-rotor, self-winding movement only 2.23mm thick, at 36.60mm in diameter. The Octo Finissimo Automatique’s caliber BVL 138 Finissimo is a micro-rotor, self-winding movement only 2.23mm thick, at 36.60mm in diameter.
Creating the world’s thinnest automatic ever, that weighs just 68g, brought with it its own set of difficulties. “A standard rotor can add up to a third to the total thickness of a movement, which we could not allow,” says Babin. “A peripheral rotor would have added to the diameter and we could not accommodate this within the existing Finissimo case – it would have increased the size by 3mm or so taking it to 45 or 46mm. If the watch was thinner and wider it wouldn’t work – we needed to keep the subtle balance of the manual-wind Finissimo case because we knew those proportions were perfect.”
The case of this Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic is 40 mm in diameter. The watch is powered by the in-house, record-thin BLV138 developed and manufactured at the Bulgari manufacture in Le Sentier. The large self-winding movement is an evolution of the manual wound BLV128. Despite the ultra-thinness of the movement, it has a power reserve of 60 hours. The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatique will retail for $13,000.
[Via:Thejewelleryeditor]
